In Loving Memory
by MarshmellowDragon
Summary: Because Enzan hesitated, because Blues was down, because Netto was scared and because Rock was Rock no matter what. Because when it came down to it, that dark chip was meant for him and no one else. Axess 27.
1. We honor those lost

"_The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis"_

-Dante Alighieri

* * *

"Don't be an idiot! If…" he didn't wait for the words to finish leaving that mouth. There was no time. No time at all. If there had been, perhaps he would have been able to say a little more; he could have even possibly blurted out everything he'd worked so hard to keep subtle before this point. Maybe he would have been able to fully justify it to both himself and those present. With more time, it could have been so that such an act wouldn't have even been required. 

But necessary it was, and there was no changing that.

"Maybe…I'll become your enemy" pushing himself off the ground was such a task that he would later wonder how he'd ever done it –_along with wondering how he'd ever been so __**weak**__-_ But somehow, it was managed. Somehow, amongst the sluggish streams of data surrounding him like a cloud of digital blood, he stood. And he glared. Not at Netto. Never at Netto. But at Shademan, because this was all his damn fault, and so help him, if Netto got hurt over this then… -_Even though he knew that this would hurt more than any physical wound could hope to match-_

"Rockman…!"

"But it's better than you dying on this boat!" There. He'd said it. There would be no taking it back. Even in what awaited him, those words would continue to be a part of who he was. He only hoped that a certain brunette would remember as such. –_though it was doubtless that Netto would be far better off if he just forgot and moved on-_

"I'm begging you Netto-kun! We don't have any more time to waste!" They really didn't. For a moment, he paused on what would happen if he failed regardless and ended up spending his last minutes as a deranged beast. What if, Proto forbid, he alone escaped in such a state and left Netto-kun to die? He wondered if this would be the last time he'd ever see his operator.

"Put it in…! Hurry!" There was no time to worry. Either it would work or it wouldn't. He, as the navi gone horribly wrong, would be deleted either way. There was no more to it. There was no more time. This needed to be done.

And still nothing came.

"Netto-kun!" he could _hear_ the grimace; could imagine it down to every last twitch of muscle, every faltered word and reluctant breath. Yet with the expression came the one thing Rock needed to know. The brunette had given in.

"SLOT IT IN!"

So it was said, and so it was done.

There were no words, no marking call of the card's name. There was no need. Though, he doubted he would have heard it anyway. His world was no longer a blend of hues, but was instead taken over by an all-consuming black, blotting out everything he had existed for thus far. He was drowning, the power was choking, throttling him until there was and would be nothing left but a dry skeleton to wave in the breeze. Couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't move, it was nothing but him and the unheard roar of power as the Dark Soul came in for the kill.

He lost Netto.

Surrounded by malevolently swirling data, the program didn't know that he was screaming until he stopped. And by then he was already halfway across the room, buster forgotten and hands ready to reach around that neck and _squeeze_ until there was nothing left and…!

"Rockman!" it only took a lunge to tackle Shademan into the ground, keeping him off of…of…Blues –_was that his name?_- in an instant and freeing the path to the control program; whatever that had to do with anything. Something about ships…? He couldn't quite recall and… -_it wasn't important anyway-_

It didn't matter. Ripping Shademan apart was more important. And he did so, grasping the only remaining arm and whipping the body around with strength his lithe form had previously lacked, until the enemy's torso separated from the limb and sent its owner flying into the wall. The Darkloid's body crumbled against it with a decidedly loud 'crack' and…and the program smiled.

Hardly noticing the blue tint that the world around him had now taken on, the navi prepared to push off and follow up on his attack, only to suddenly find the sharp end of a sword pointed to his neck. The blade hummed with ready data, as real a threat to his existence as the 'delete' command on a computer terminal. Covered eyes still managed to stare him down, betraying not an ounce of whatever conflict may have resided within.

"Don't move" the voice was level and calm. The implications were not.

He moved anyway.

And suddenly it was him pointing a charged shot to the other's head, grinning fiercely and tapping the barrel rather contentedly. "Don't move" he mocked. There was a pause as the packet of data considered what to do, followed quickly by the revelation that he really didn't care, and therefore chose the easiest course of action and discharged the shot.

He wouldn't have missed if he hadn't been screaming.

The navi crumpled faster than his darkloid victim had not too long before, screeching obscenities and commands faster than any human could ever hope to comprehend. And yet, Blues was still there, audio receptors ready and willing, picking up every last word until it became nothing more than a mantra that even the carbon based life forms could grasp.

"Delete me!" Blues didn't bother pausing at the command. It would be for the best. Sword drawn and poised to bring itself down through another program's neck, he didn't want or need to waste his processing power musing over what state this would leave Hikari Netto in. It was none of his concern, because if Enzan-sama was in good health, then everything would work out just...

And then Rockman was gone in a flash of light, fading into a raving speck in the distance and simultaneously leaving Blues quite alone. Said navi experienced a brutal moment of silence as Enzan failed in his words and Netto seemed far past the point of rational thought. He frowned in the general direction of the escapee, then logged out and prepared to train until he was sure that there would be no more point-blank buster charges to his head.

Netto threw up.

* * *

_So…_

…_Chances are this won't be continued. But the incomplete tag is on anyway :P I need to sleep. I'll fix up any blaring mistakes tomorrow :D and come on, you can't say you haven't wondered at least ONCE what would've happened if Enzan hadn't stolen the dark chip from Netto. Angst machine :D Yeah, and I know the title is weird. Bear with me here. I'm sleep deprived.  
_

_long live .EXE!_


	2. And remember the sacrifices made

"_Blinded by faith, I couldn't hear  
All the whispers, the warning's so clear…  
…No remorse 'cause I still remember  
The smile when you tore me apart"_

-Within Temptation, "Angels"

* * *

The first time they met, Netto cried. To his credit, it began in as much as a brave manner as he could manage. He kept his face together, kept the tears from weighing down on his lips and bringing his mouth into a frown. There were no sobs, no swollen or puffy cheeks to denote the kind of moisture that commonly fell in with daytime soap opera wives. He stood firm in front of the computer he needed to protect, arms spread wide and daring the program to fire off that shot charging in his buster. Droplets of tears just happened to be rolling down his cheeks while he did so. 

The program, feeling rather confident after having just thrown Enzan into a wall, merely smiled and sauntered up to his once operator.

"I always hated it when you cried, Netto-kun" he had said with an expression that was indiscernible from Rock's –_the __**real**__ Rock's, Netto had told himself-_ own. "So why are you crying?" the navi had scoffed as his gloved thumb wiped away the moisture trailing down the cheeks. Perhaps the tears had had something to do with the buster which was now lodging itself underneath the brunette's ribcage. It might have been the searing heat gathering in said buster, or maybe it could have been the realization that not too many people survived a plasma blast through their stomach at point blank range.

It could have also been the fact that the _thing_ which held that buster had been Rockman at some point.

And the shot would have fired too, if Meijin hadn't gotten fed up with being forced onto the sidelines and had consequently slammed a baseball bat into one of the dimensional converters so that the whole field collapsed and left Netto with nothing more than a second degree burn on his stomach. All of it taking place without a single whimper escaping from the child's wavering lips.

Although, by the time Enzan picked himself out of the rubble, the brunette had moved on to the thick streams of sobs allowed to eleven-year-olds and nobody could really stop them until Yuuichiro reappeared out of a mass of frantic interns to take him home.

The second time, Netto was ready and made sure only to glare, fold his arms, and in all, look very much like Laika when there was a lack of caffeine in the morning. He couldn't physically do all that much, as Enzan had grabbed him and thrown him over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. But at least the brunette could say that he kept his composure.

This of course was missing the fact that he and the navi were only in the same room for a grand total of thirty seconds.

The third time it happened, one of them was confined to a computer screen while the other typed furiously away in an attempt to save the data on said computer. The door was bolted, the network locked, communications to the outside world cutoff. The oxygen would run out eventually, as would the energy on the computer's battery. One of two held the wire to reconnect the power; the other had the program to begin the process of air recirculation. It was a stalemate, an intern would later incorrectly describe the situation as.

No one knew, nor would they ever know, what either of the two said while in that small room, if anything at all. All that they knew was that when the door had finally been pried open, Netto had stumbled out, handed a disc to the nearest official looking person, and promptly fainted.

When he woke up again, no one had the heart to tell him that his oxygen should have run out. –_the proper phrase to describe it was that he should have been dead-_ No one told him that someone had kept the vents going and that at the time the only navi capable of controlling those vents had been in the room with the brunette. Hope, Yuuichiro would explain at a later date, was a wonderful thing to have; yet when shattered, was more dangerous than any buster shot could hope to be.

It didn't matter really, because the fourth time Netto saw him, the jumpsuit was blue again. Laika had shouted something or other, but the brunette walked forward anyway. Later claims declared that Yuuichiro had been yelling all sorts of things into his communications line to the team, although Netto had steadily put one foot in front of the other. Meijin had been manning three different consoles at once in an attempt to shut down the area before it was too late, and still the child had left his arms outstretched towards the blue one in some odd gesture of trust.

It was Enzan who finally stepped in, blocked the incoming sword with a blade of his own, pushed the brunette back and consequently left whatever dream the he had been seeing in those moments crushed and trampled upon the ground.

He was left behind for the fifth run, only because Yuuichiro was having second thoughts and explained that perhaps Netto could help just as much from the control room as he could on the shuttle set to dock with Regal's ship.

And so he watched one friend grapple with an unknown, not bothering to let go of his father's lab coat all the while. He winced when wincing was good and due, but he frowned when others cheered. He almost cried out when the one purple glove reached out and shot bolts of dark down the limb and across an opposing chest, and the breath caught in his throat when that current suddenly reversed.

This time, however, when the jumpsuit again began to take on a blue tint, Netto only turned away with hands fisted in their respective pockets. It wouldn't work, he had muttered. Enzan and Blues were very close, but that was the problem in itself, he had continued to no one in particular. There was only one Hikari Netto, and he'd blown it.

When attempt number six came around, the brunette had convinced himself that this was just payback to Enzan for saving his hide. Yeah, and the dramatic entrance from the balcony had just been for kicks.

It began with a memory of his, _their_, father, making the promise that had essentially changed everything.

"I don't blame you for being so clingy" the program had offered. But the barb had become dull and failed to sink into Netto's awareness as it should have. Instead, there was only a hesitant step forward.

"Didn't we already try this?" Another step.

"Enzan's not here to save you this time." And another.

The buster shot spoke for him. One more step.

Direct hit to the head. The cerulean boots gleamed under the light of the blast.

"Idiot" Netto took the sixth step and stared Rock in the face. The stench of deja-vu hung in the air as the blaster clicked again, this time poking under the ribs and straight up towards the heart. He was crying again; silently, but still visibly. Sobbing had never really been his thing.

The shot went off.

"Ain't I?" came the whisper. And Hikari Netto then collapsed headfirst onto his navi.

The sky was such a pretty color. Which was more than likely supposed to be an indicator that this was Netto's world, no one else's. Of course the weather would be so nice in a creation of the brunette. Nothing but the rising sun and the oddly comforting sight of seeing the shadows retract into their rightful place beneath their owners. It was a bit blurry around the edges, but that was probably just because the brunette's mind was wandering. Maybe he was dreaming about curry. Who knew?

"Red and purple don't make blue" finally came the answer.

Crying was a weird feeling.

* * *

_I have vowed never to attempt a songfic again, and therefore there are no lyrics present here. However, the __**highly recommended**__ song to go with this would be 'Angels' by Within Temptation. I don't like all of their songs, but this one song I think is quite nice :P if nothing else, there's a great Hinamori Momo tribute to it…_

_ANGST FEST ON THE OOC FARM:D (who can tell that the workload is messing with my brain? Ugh, I shouldn't have posted this)_

_Be on the lookout for a semi-Enzan-centric part three. In like…a month D:_


End file.
